Lord Kilhenny stood there, his hair wild and windswept, and wearing a black smoking jacket. He reminded me of an aging Heathcliff or even a Lord Byron. In fact he looked so formidable that the reporters actually headed back to their motorcar and drove off.

As the motorcar backed away he turned on us. “And that means you too. I don’t know who the hell you are, but you are not welcome here.”

“Father, this is my good friend Princess Alexandra Zamanska.” Darcy stepped in to intercept his father as he advanced on the Rolls. “And she was good enough to fly her aeroplane over to Ireland because she wanted to help you. At this very moment a barrister friend of hers is searching out the best defense counsel in Ireland on your behalf.”

Lord Kilhenny took in the glamorous woman in the backseat of the Rolls. “Why on earth would you go to that amount of trouble for me, Your Highness?” he demanded. “You don’t know me from Adam.”

“Because I adore your son and I can see that this silly business could ruin his life.”

“I don’t want charity. I don’t need charity. So thank you very much but please leave.” He stood there with his arms folded across his chest, glaring at her defiantly.

“Silly stubborn man,” Princess Zamanska said. “You should at least listen to what we have to say. We want to help you. Don’t you understand that?”

“But don’t you understand, it’s no good.” He turned his head away. “Even if I could afford the best barrister in Ireland, there’s nothing he or you can do. There’s nothing anyone can do, as I keep telling this son of mine. That brainless inspector has decided I’m guilty and that’s that.”

Princess Zamanska opened the door of the Rolls and stepped down. The wind swept at her dark mink coat and she drew it around her. She looked like a figure from a tragic Russian novel. “The whole question comes down to this,” she said, walking toward him. “Do you think you are guilty?”

“I don’t know!” he shouted at her over the wind. “I don’t goddamn well know. I can’t remember a damned thing. And what does it matter anyway?”

“Because if you don’t let people help you, if you aren’t prepared to help yourself, you will hang,” she said.

“I really don’t care,” he said. “I’ve lost everything that matters to me.”